Monday, March 27, 2017

Matthew and Otto retired as Atlantic hurricane names after the storms turned deadly, destructive in 2016

March 27,2017, 12:47:29PM,EDT

The World Meteorological Organization announced on Monday that it is
retiring Matthew and Otto from the list of Atlantic hurricane names
after their deadly and destructive impacts during the 2016 season.
Both
Matthew and Otto developed into powerful late-season hurricanes in the
Caribbean, leaving behind significant damage which impacted millions.
Matthew
became a Category 5 hurricane on the night of Sept. 30, making it the
first Category 5 hurricane in the basin since Hurricane Felix in 2007.

The storm brought utter devastation
to Haiti as it made landfall in the country as a Category 4 hurricane on
Oct. 4. The Haitian government reported that 546 people were killed,
while 2.4 million were affected. Another 1.4 million were in need of
humanitarian assistance in the wake of Matthew.
After pummeling parts of the Caribbean, Matthew
set it sights on the United States, where it caused $10 billion in
damage along the Southeast coast. Some of the harshest impacts were felt
in the eastern Carolinas as Matthew helped trigger historic flooding.
Thirty-three fatalities were attributed to Matthew in the U.S., most of them due to drowning.

Otto
was the last named storm of the 2016 season, but it walloped Central
America for several days with heavy rain and flooding after making
landfall in southern Nicaragua on Nov. 24.
The storm was blamed for 10 deaths in Costa Rica and eight in Panama. RELATED6 ways to prepare now for hurricanesAccuWeather Hurricane Center2016 Atlantic hurricane season ends as the deadliest in more than 10 years
Otto was the first hurricane since
1851 to affect Costa Rica directly, and it was also the latest hurricane
formation in a calendar year in the Caribbean Sea, according to the
WMO.
Tropical cyclones are named in order to help with quick
identification of the storms in warning messages. The WMO keeps a
rotating list of names, which are appropriate for each tropical basin.
Names are retired when extensive damage or loss of life occurs, making
future use of the name inappropriate.
With Matthew and Otto now
retired, there are 82 names that have been retired from the Atlantic
list. The WMO will use Martin and Owen as replacements when the list of
2016 names is due to be used again in 2022.